David Bowles, owner of Elite Home Staging, LLC, arguably the most sought-after home staging and design company in South Florida, has a long professional real estate history, which has given him a knack for recognizing key sale factors. As an entrepreneur, former real estate agent, property manager, landlord and investor, David knows that if a buyer, while viewing a property, has an emotional reaction of “I’m home!” they are at the closest point to making a purchase decision that any REALTOR® can get them to. Uniquely, home staging creates this experience. 

David had his first real estate experience at just 20 years old, as a young business administration student at Edinboro University, near his hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania. It was there that a classmate suggested some simple advice: buy a duplex, live on one side and rent the other. David would go on to buy a triplex in Pittsburgh and work as a Realtor and property manager while living in Pennsylvania. Later, David moved to Fort Lauderdale and began successfully managing a luxury condominium building. He was then approached with an opportunity to become a high-level regional manager but decided to bank on himself instead and start his own business. In 2006, David partnered with a designer who had a concept for a home staging company, and Elite Home Staging was born. David would proceed to buy out his partner and became the sole owner of Elite Home Staging. Along the way, David has invested in commercial real estate and uses home staging and design techniques to attract plaza, office, warehouse, and restaurant tenants to his properties. 

Headquartered in David’s 50,000 square feet of commercial space in Oakland Park, Elite Home Staging, with its team of six full-time employees and four independent contractors, offers many advantages to its clients. David explains, “I've had the company for so many years that I've invested a great deal in it, allowing our price point to be very aggressive compared to my competitors.” 

On any given day, Elite Home Staging has an average of 75 properties staged, from the Palm Beaches to the Keys and Naples. Property types include vacation rentals, multifamily residential building units, developer model homes, townhomes, condominiums, single family homes and more. 

Because of his background as a Realtor and many years involved in real estate investing and rentals, David is keenly aware of what helps a property sell and thoroughly enjoys being able to assist people with a variety of staging needs, but especially Realtors who need to show a listing in its best light. What he finds most fulfilling, he says, are the transformations that occur. 

“I love taking a property that was initially vacant, without any real feeling or direction, and completely changing the environment to one that sparks some kind of feeling in buyers who walk into them,” David says. “When walking into a vacant home, there is really nothing to gravitate to. If you create this warm setting with furniture, it feels more like a home … their home. I hear clients say, all the time, that the house has been on the market for such a long time, and they didn’t get any offers … and then, when staged, great, creditable offers came in!”

David recommends taking a cue about the value of home staging from leading real estate companies with national programs that offer upfront financing for staging services, with costs recouped from the buyer during closing, never out of pocket. Elite Home Staging is proud to be a preferred vendor with these programs. 

“Three factors really sell homes: location, price, and appearance. You can’t change the location of a property,” David smiles, “but you can change the price and the appearance. Home staging has become a valuable alternative to price reductions.” 

When David started Elite Home Staging, his company was possibly the first of its kind in South Florida. While there are now many home staging companies in the arena, there are distinct advantages to working with Elite Home Staging.

“Since I own my own warehouse, trucks, vans, and inventory, my overhead is much more manageable than most other staging companies. Combined with our overall work ethic and response time, Elite Home Staging is essentially unbeatable,” David says with pride. “We are a one-stop shop, with extremely fast turnaround times. We stage your property in one day, we provide professional photographs (included with the staging), all within a day or two of the install date, and you're on your way… You're live on MLS, on average, in three days.”

 

***PULL-OUT SECTION***

At the end of the day, David goes home to husband Christopher Boswell, with whom he is raising a family; he and Christopher have two little four-and-a-half-year-old twin girls, Ellington Lee and Gracyn Alair. David laughs at the notion of facing his daily schedule without help at home, and credits Christopher, a stay-at-home dad, for all the work and magic of raising their children.

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